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Newbie community help!

I thought we might have a thread were the community could give advice and tips for newbs, to improve their player experience.

Here's some of my tips:

- Don't turn off newbie protection!

Alot of newbies want to get into pvp action straight away, but that won't happen the way you want it anyway, this game have veterans that will pwn you 99,9 % of the time, even if you team up with other newbs to attack an enemy.
Use the time with newbie protection to skill up whatever weapon skills you prefer. Just remember players can't kill you with newb protection, but goblins can!

- Humans are preferd gank-prey!

The majority of the players chose the human race, and hence it's a nice place for ganking veterans to camp. If you want to play a human, you might want to consider taking the trip to either dwarf or elf land, which is less populated, and is less dangerous. Of course after newbie protection has run out.

- Don't join a clan unless you are prepared to leave the NPC cities!

If you still have quests and stuff to do in the starter cities and capitals, you should wait until you've done most of your business there before you join a clan, since you risk being more vulnarable to enemies of your clan in a city. Since guardtowers will not protect you against warring clanmembers you have less protection than if you stay unclanned.
You should also find a clan with a city, if you want to join one.

- Don't focus on the gear to begin with.

If you can't defend that lovely plate armor, it will do you no good without the skills to defend it. If you want to craft your own armor, don't waste time on getting the best stuff until you have the weapon skills and health/stamina points to go along with it. Start out with the low gear and weapons and work your way up.
if you get tired of grinding, change weapons or change from combat to crafting, or the other way around.

- Find someone to share your grind with

Wether it's for questing or just grinding, or gathering resources, you are safer going in a group than going alone.
If there's many of you, you can have one work as a scout to look for danger while the rest grind away.
Being in a group increase that chance enemies may be more hesitant to attack you, of you surviving if you're group is attacked, and that you can defend yourself with more force.

That's all I could think of atm, add your own comments or tips or questions if you like.

-Spend from 15 minutes to an hour Managing your hotkeys combined with keyboard.

For example, put your melee, bow, staff in the 1st hot key bar. Key bind melee to Alt+Left click on yout mouse. Staff to Alt+Wheel. Bow, Alt+right click. If you have a special keyboard, mark your 1H + shield in one of your keyboard key(only one) Or download a macro to make it happen.

-Always get a mount or craft one everytime you get out of the city, no matter the reason.

In DF, you dont want to get killed. Without a mount, you will never escape one pker. The idea is to mount and run away back to base everytime you see or hear a pker coming.

I thought we might have a thread were the community could give advice and tips for newbs, to improve their player experience.

- Don't join a clan unless you are prepared to leave the NPC cities!

If you still have quests and stuff to do in the starter cities and capitals, you should wait until you've done most of your business there before you join a clan, since you risk being more vulnarable to enemies of your clan in a city. Since guardtowers will not protect you against warring clanmembers you have less protection than if you stay unclanned.
You should also find a clan with a city, if you want to join one.

That's all I could think of atm, add your own comments or tips or questions if you like.

You should also point out that these are your opinions, not in game facts.
In my opinion you a newbie should join some clan right away. It will make the game so much more fun.
Joining the clan doenst mean a player has to leave the NPC city/the starter area.

1) Before you even install the game - upgrade damn hardware to "playable" system requirements, update video and DirectX drivers, run DXDIAG to detect and solve OS problems - that will save you from a LOT of frustration. Never ever try to run a game on a <2 Gb RAM.

2) As you logged on the very first time - adjust and save your graphic settings to reach playable level of FPS. Then turn around your starting bindstone, find that COUNCELLOR NPC and take his 2 starting quests!

3) There is a buff, that makes you kind of a demi-god, when fighting goblins. And its called FOOD. Stay well-fed and rest between fights, and you can solo any easy mob, even naked and with only newbie sword in hand. Pick mobs one-by-one, running away, breaking LoS and resting after each kill.

4) The main "gathering tool" is a SKINNING KNIFE. Loot dry everything you kill, skin every grave, bank the spoils. Killing chicken in town and SKINNING them will give you eggs - ITS A FOOD, TOO (with no cooking). Cooking rat stew and cat stakes require only 1.0 in Cooking skill, pot and pans (crafting tool), and an oven (in every city).

5) There are 3 starting cities for each race, usually located around the race capital. ALL NEWBIE QUESTS ARE THE SAME in each city. So, if NPC asks you to gather 4 goblin bows... gather 8 or 12 - you can turn this quest another 1 or 2 times if you travel to another starter city.

6) Do not buy tools - you will get a lot as rewards on a newbie quest chain.

7) To cast any spell you will need a MAGIC STAFF equipped in hand (instead of a weapon). Either kill a spellcasting mob (goblin shaman, troll), or ask a player to give/sell you one. To cast something other than Heal Self and Mana Missile, you will also need reagents in your backpack.

8) Use /bindstone_recall instead of running back to your bind location. Remember, that you will stand, unable to move, producing a loud enough "recalling sound", so do it under some cover.

Your goals for the first days will be rising stats via fighting mobs, skilling up any 2-hander of your choice, and rising Lesser Magic. Also, before moving out of your racial area, try to finish all starter quests and take title quests in your race capital city.

You should also point out that these are your opinions, not in game facts.
In my opinion you a newbie should join some clan right away. It will make the game so much more fun.
Joining the clan doenst mean a player has to leave the NPC city/the starter area.

Lol, veteran newb killing speaking

Most are of the opinion that joining a clan right away is a bad idea, newbs don't stand a chance against skilled up clan-enemies, therefore the secure choice is to not join a clan in the beginning. Noone can guarantee that their clan won't be at war with someone, since war can be declared by anyone towards anyone.

Of course you don't have to leave an NPC city if you join a clan, if that clan is ready to protect you. But all in all the safety is at risk for a newb, and in overall we want to help the newbs have a good time...